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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Chapter 7 ~ Hurry Up and Wait

The next month was a blur. Every waking moment was spent doing projects around the house from big to small with one simple goal in mind; to make our home look irresistible to as many people as possible!

It was an older ranch style house situated on three acres. Our small subdivision was developed around a manmade lake, maybe 5 acres in size with one road coming in, wrapping around the lake and exiting the same way it entered. Ours was one of the lake front pieces and although we had come incredibly close, our home had never been touched by flood waters! About four years prior we had erected a shed row barn that sat comfortably to one side of the house without looking intrusive. It was a lovely set up which attracted quite a bit of attention from realtors and buyers alike. There was but one problem; our neighbors. Our subdivision, like so many other older developments had an interesting selection of home owners; those who loved their dwellings and those who did not. Sadly, one of the ‘nots’ lived directly across the street from us!

I implored them both by phone and in person to clean up their yard, even offering my help, without response. Their garage too cluttered to be used for vehicle storage was one thing, but the unsightly empty lot beside their home housing an assortment of dead car parts and wooden pallets was inexcusable. Many interested buyers did not bother to stop and visit our dreamlike home because of this. I watched as they sometimes would not even turn into our drive after seeing the pig pen my neighbors called their home.

Month after month passed us by with no contracts offered on our home. It nearly broke my heart and started a swell of doubt to rise inside of me. I tried to bide my time with a contractor we hired. Don and I decided create our dream farm in stages. We opted to build a custom barn instead of a pre fabricated one. Along with this idea, we wanted to have an apartment situated above the barn that we would live in for a small amount of time and later possibly rent out, after of course, our real home was built. As often as my mind started to drift backwards into worrying about the sale of our house, I would force my thoughts forward into this building project.

Six months had passed and we still did not have one offer so we made the decision to let our realtor go and hire one who was of a more aggressive nature. With her tactics we drastically lowered the price and forged forward. Within days we had two interested parties and an offer was on the table. We reached an agreement and our house was SOLD! This entire process took nine grueling months.

Not one week later a massive storm deluged the area with torrents of rain. Again, our home was not flooded, but so many in our area were, that trying to find a rental house while we built, was quickly becoming an urgent situation! It was not a matter of being picky about where we were going to rent, it was a matter of just finding a rental property that was available and would accept our 3 dogs, 3 cats, 1bird and 1 fish! The horses obviously, had to be boarded.